The area occupied by tailgating fans of the NFL’s New York Giants and New York Jets during the fall was the setting for the Tire Rack SCCA Solo® Championship Tour event, which took place over the weekend in a lot outside MetLife Stadium.
Several close battles highlighted the two-day competition that utilizes the traditional class-based competition used at The Tire Rack SCCA Solo National Championships.
The closest of those battles was in Super Street R, which was decided by 0.027-second. Grand Reeve (SSR, IRacing.com/G-Fab Racing Chevrolet Corvette), of Sturbridge, Massachusetts, was the winner following Sunday’s three runs. Reeve was the day-one leader in the class, but things got tense on Sunday when Pat Salerno bested Reeve’s top time by 0.3-second. In the end, the overnight cushion built by Reeve withstood the onslaught.
D Street was one of the smaller classes at the event, but was more than captivating. Chris Morton (My Ever Shrinking Wallet Subaru WRX), of Webster, New York, was the winner by a mere 0.143-second over Keith Sturm. Following Saturday’s three runs, Morton was the leader in the clubhouse. Like in SSR, the second-place driver — Sturm, in this case — ran strong on Sunday, beating Morton’s best time of the day. Morton hit a cone during each of his final two Sunday runs, which left the door open for Sturm. However, Morton’s standing time was enough the give him the nod for the win.
Courtney Cormier (H Street, Mousektravel/Evolution/BFGoodrich Tires Mini Cooper), of Glen Allen, Virginia, was the class leader after three runs on Saturday. Nick Babin challenged for the lead on Sunday, but fell 0.170-second short of making up the gap Cormier had created.
Heidi Ellison (Street Touring Ultra, Autocraft BMW Specialist BMW M3), of Roosevelt, New York, scored a popular class win. Living less than 40 miles from the competition site, she is a local driver with a good following in the area. She blew the competition away on Saturday, setting a time 1.2 seconds quicker than her closest competition. Ellison was unable to set the fast time on Sunday, but her overnight-lead was enough to ensure her the win over Laurence Casey.
The Tire Rack SCCA Solo Championship Tour Series rolls on to the Spring Nationals in Lincoln, Nebraska, May 25-26. This will be a great opportunity to experience an event at the Lincoln Airpark prior to the National Championship meet. More information on The Tire Rack SCCA Solo Program is available at http://www.scca.com/solo.
More information, including full results, from The Tire Rack Solo New Jersey Championship Tour is available here.
Like the Club on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @SCCAOfficial.
2014 New Jersey Championship Tour
After a long, hard winter everyone was definitely ready for spring. The problem was spring was refusing to emerge. Rally events got postponed, and then run as winter events. We were getting nervous as May 3 approached, because we had no backup plan. This was going to run as a spring event. Fortunately, the sun finally emerged, and Saturday turned out to be a perfect day, with scattered clouds and highs in the 60s.
Seventeen cars gathered at Dunn’s Imports in Middleton WI, ranging from late-model Camaros to a 1973 Plymouth Duster. BMWs outnumbered Subarus, for once. While we awaited the start, competitors admired the selection of exotic cars and Moto Guzzi motorcycles in the shop. Jason Dunn, our host and fellow competitor, provided a continental breakfast to help folks get in the mood. After a short rally school, teams were off at 11:00 a.m. on their seven-hour journey.
Rallymaster Fred Rosevear provided a 200-mile course that wound through the ‘driftless’ area west of Madison. It is a region stretching in a rough triangle from Madison, to Lacrosse, to Eau Claire, Wisconsin, where ancient glaciers did not cover the land and grind down the hills. There are deep valleys and steep hillsides.
The roads are narrow and follow the terrain up and down through the many small canyons. Nothing is straight. The event had longer transit zones, followed by short timed ‘stages’. The timed sections, usually a couple of miles, were chosen to be the twistiest roads available. The speeds were set from 38-45 mph, and teams needed to be alert to maintain them.
Work is being done to establish a local rally program in Milwaukee Region and a loyal group of regulars has started to form.
When new folks come out, the goal is for them to enjoy the rally as much as find the route and checkpoints. Fred’s course was rock solid. The event kept to its timetable as everyone arrived at the finish line just before 6:00 p.m., as promised.
Image courtesey of Sherman Chang
Even with a new record 173 drivers, the Mineral Wells Pro Solo continues to be one of the great undiscovered jewels of the SCCA SOLO National touring series. Or maybe it just feels like a small event due to the stellar event organization by Brad and Jennifer Maxcy (our current Solo National event chairs). As Mineral Wells is a sleepy desert hamlet, there is not much for food or entertainment, not that it was necessary: Terry Fair donned a theme-appropriate sombrero, manned the Vorshlag Friday night grill and kept slinging burgers and dogs until everybody sat down for David Hedderick’s Horrible Hoedown Karaoke. Likewise Saturday night, the Mineral Wells Chamber of Commerce catered BBQ with all the brisket, sausage and fixin’s necessary. Both nights there was c-o-l-d Rahr & Sons on draught: the Blonde Lager for those who were recovering from the days heat and the Iron Thistle Scotch ale for those that were preparing for the night’s chill. Many were raised in the memory of Tommy Saunders with wishes for his family and a speedy return to Solo competition for his daughter, Rachel.
As for the competition, the Jerett Jan penned courses included substantial sweeping turns into technical transitional elements that snaked back into themselves. In addition to the courses, competitors were challenged by conditions, there was not a cloud in the sky, but Saturday competition started with air and surface temperatures barely in the 50’s and ended with air temps in the 90’s and surface temperatures approaching 120F! Sunday dawned slightly warmer, but by the time the Challenge’s started air and surface temperatures were back to tire melting temperatures.
Image courtesey of Zack Barnes
Speaking of, Mark Madarash lined up against Erik Strelnieks in what appeared to be a Super Challenge Battle Royale. The Doctor fired off a .491 redlight, leaving Madarash to take an anticlimactic victory lap. Fortunately, the ladies delivered as Jocelin Huang’s GT3 bested Kim Whitener’s Tiger Civic for the win. In the Bonus challenge it was Daniel McCelvey taking the win after having to spot Mini after Mini multiple seconds on the line.
Turning to the class competition highlights: the story of the weekend may be C-Street: Paul Brown’s “Pearly Smurf” 370Z took the class lead Saturday Morning over a collection of gray Scion’s. In one of those Scion’s was Chris Levitz, buried in 6th place, struggling with redlights, cones, and lacking speed. All that changed Sunday, as Levitz charged back, hacking 1.4 seconds of his time on both sides. Brown tried to respond but red-lit and fell to Levitz by 0.066seconds. Check out the “on-board” from Levitz here:
Not to be outdone by the 4-bangers, the Corvettes classes had Sunday drama too: in BS Jerry Centanni’s Sunday charge fall just 0.017 short of Lane Borg, while Mark Wortham had enough to hold off co-driver Matt Lucas. Chad Langley’s Corvette may not have been able to catch Erik Strelnieks for the win in SSM competition, but in the “MURIKA” tire slaying competition, they won hands down.
There was some concern Saturday about the R2 class having any cars that weren’t broken or burned. Tom Holt rebuilt an axle to beat Vitek Boruvka’s Miata with a toasty steering pump for the last trophy spot, while Chris Dorsey had nothing for Mark Madarash in 2nd. Troy Acosta took the Strelniek’s Boxster to the class win. Beth McClure-Strelnieks switched from the family RX7 to the aforementioned Boxster, when the former had some mechanical struggles. A Porsche was the car to have in L2 as she beat those driven by Jocelin Huang, 2nd and Su Brude,4th, as well as the Camaro of Jackie Mutschler in 3rd.
Image courtesey of Brad Maxcey
David Rock in an MR-2 Spyder bested all the favorites in STR. Rob Irish, Jason “Mr. Sunday” Minehart, Jon Pomrenke, Kenneth Baker, Drew VanderPloeg, and Matt Glagola couldn’t match Rock’s consistent .55X reaction times and 2.2XX 60′ times. Craig Wilcox claimed STX from the first runs, though Tom Reynolds got within 0.666 but conditions made it devilishly hard to catch up.
Mark Madarash, of Red Oak, Texas, drove home a happy racer following his Super Challenge win at The Tire Rack® SCCA ProSolo® event, at the Mineral Wells Airport. Jocelin Huang, of Edina, Minnesota, was the Ladies Challenge winner.
The 173 racers reset the entry record for any ProSolo event held in Texas. This past weekend’s number was a 15-percent increase over the previous record, which was last year’s Mineral Wells ProSolo event. Soloists in Texas can only hope that this trend will continue in the years to come.
Participants were rewarded for their attendance with favorable conditions, including temperatures in the 80s and 90s. There were also numerous social activities included in the schedule. The Friday-night cookout, sponsored by Vorshlag, and Saturday’s barbeque dinner, provided by the Mineral Well Chamber of Commerce, were big hits amongst all the participants.
The courses, designed by Jerret Jan, featured both high-speed and technical sections that pushed each driver to maintain their concentration. The courses were longer than the standard length used in ProSolo events to give each driver the best possible experience.
Madarash (Race Tire Index 2, Janco Pontiac Trans-Am) finished the class competition, held on Saturday and Sunday morning, second and qualified for the Super Challenge bracket in the 23rd overall seed.
His road to the final started with a first-round win over Chris Levitz (C Street, Scion FR-S). Troy Acosta (Race Tire Index 2, Jungle Cat Racing/Hoosier/JC Autospec Porsche Boxster) was the next driver to fall to Madarash in the bracket competition. It was sweet revenge for Madarash who finished 0.3-second behind Acosta during the qualifying rounds.
In the quarter-final round, Madarash took out Lee Chhit (Street Touring FWD, Custom Chip Connections/Outdoor Solutions Mini Cooper). Madarash then put down Charles Kim (Street Index RWD, Bee Mick Sea Racing Hyundai Genesis) before meeting with Erik Strelnieks in the final.
Strelnieks (Super Street Modified, Hoosier/OS Giken/ Jungle Cat Racing Mazda RX7) got to the Super Challenge Final after taking the top overall seed in the bracket. In round one Strelnieks downed Troy Dudley (Bump Class, FTW Racing/Synapse Engineering/MZM Nissan GTR), and then beat Bob Neff (Street Touring Sport, Mazda Miata) in the second round.
In the quarter-finals, Strelnieks was the victor over Mark Wortham (Super Street R, JBCorvette.com/The Auto Counsel Chevrolet Corvette). Then, Strelnieks beat Greg Reno (Street Index FWD, MiniUSA/Baron Mini and BMW/Kumho Tire Mini Cooper) to earn his spot in the final with Madarash.
Madarash would end up The Tire Rack SCCA ProSolo Super Challenge winner for the first time this season. Reno completed the podium positions after beating Kim in the third-place runoff.
In the Ladies Challenge, Huang (Ladies Class 2, The Alignment Guy Porsche GT3) started her pathway to the bracket win by knocking out Michelle Seelig (Ladies Class 3, Subaru STI). Huang then dispatched with Beth McClure-Strelnieks (Ladies Class 2, Hoosier/OS Giken/JC Auto Spec/Jungle Cat Racing Porsche Boxster) en route to the final. Kim Whitener (Ladies Class 3, Black Armor Helmets/Texas Track Works Honda Civic) was Huang’s opponent in the final round.
Whitener, the top seed in the Ladies bracket, got to the final after beating Connie Smith (Ladies Class 2, Audi TT) and Jackie Mutschler (Ladies Class 2, Chevrolet Camaro). When it was all said and done, Huang ended up Ladies Challenge winner while McClure-Strelnieks took home the bronze after beating Mutschler in the third-place runoff.
Daniel McCelvey (Race Tire Index 2, Thanks Thomas! Mazda RX-7), of Houston, was the Bonus Challenge winner.
The next stop for The Tire Rack SCCA ProSolo Series is the Spring Nationals in Lincoln, Nebraska, May 23-24.
More information, including full results, of the Mineral Wells Tire Rack SCCA ProSolo event can be found here. More information on the entire Tire Rack SCCA Solo program is available at http://www.scca.com/Solo.
